important

Wreckage of a plane carrying 116 people has been located in a remote area of Mali. No survivors have been found. Flight 5017 was traveling from Burkina Faso to Algeria when it lost contact with aviation officials less than an hour after takeoff. Bad weather is the primary suspect. A French military unit, already stationed in Mali to help fight Islamist militants, was dispatched to the crash site to secure the area and aid local operations.

Flight Found

The White House is considering granting asylum to hundreds of children and young adults in Honduras so they don’t have to make the dangerous trip to the U.S. through Mexico. The U.S. would screen thousands in Honduras to determine if they could enter on refugee or emergency humanitarian grounds, basing its decision on the risk of violence in the Central American nation. Critics believe the plan will change the legal definition of refugee and encourage far more migration.

Refugee Status

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned the rocket attack on a Gaza school sheltering hundreds of Palestinians that killed at least 16, mostly women and children. The bombing “underscores the imperative for the killing to stop now,” he said. Israeli officials initially blamed Hamas, then said it was “possible” their rockets struck the UN shelter. Palestinians are rioting in the West Bank, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to foster a week-long ceasefire and peace talks.

Civilians Shelled

Amazon has reported larger-than-expected losses due to big new investments, triggering a 10 percent stock drop in after-hours trading. The company’s revenue was $19.34 billion, but it reported a net loss of $126 million in the second quarter, far more than the $7 million a year ago. Investors are getting nervous about the company, which warned that third quarter losses would be even worse. “It’s hard to have $20 billion in revenue and not make any money,” noted one analyst. “It’s a real feat.”

Briefly

intriguing

Who can’t you trust to edit Wikipedia? Congress, apparently. The online encyclopedia’s administrators have instituted a 10-day ban on anonymous edits from IP addresses linked to the House of Representatives. The action follows “disruptive” edits tracked by a bot that monitors congressional Wiki changes and reports them on Twitter. After posting a story about the bot, Mediaite’s Wiki profile was edited from a congressional IP address to describe it as a “sexist transphobic” blog. That’s when the hammer fell.

Congressional Oversight

Dinosaurs are extinct, but many may have had, as the boys from Monty Python might say, some beautiful plumage. Newly unearthed fossils in Siberia of the first plant-eating dinosaur with feathers suggest that feathers grew not just on many carnivorous dinosaurs, from which birds evolved, but were potentially far more widespread. The feather’s evolutionary purpose remains unclear, but one thing is certain: The makers of the next big dinosaur movie will be monitoring things closely.

Fossil Find

An 82-year-old man with Alzheimer’s who had been missing for three days was found in 20 minutes with the help of a small drone. Guillermo DeVenecia, of Wisconsin, was spotted in a bean field by the aerial vehicle operated by volunteer David Lesh, who usually uses the technology to make business videos. The case may affect debates about the use of drones in search operations, which the Federal Aviation Administration has been trying to prevent.

Remote Rescue

The splendiferous building featured in The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually a department store in Goerlitz in the former East Germany. A wealthy German entrepreneur is hoping to capitalize on the Art Nouveau icon’s newfound celebrity with a $30 million face-lift to help boost the town’s long-failing fortunes. The store had been shuttered for years when director Wes Anderson chose it, but when it reopens, said one fan, the “dead heart of the city will begin to beat again.”

Life Imitating Art Nouveau

Bradley Wiggins, winner of the 2012 Tour de France, is no longer hitting the road. The Englishman, 34, says he’s giving up road racing to focus on less “cut-throat” track racing. Wiggins was bypassed to lead England on the Tour this year, but he quickly changed gears for the Commonwealth Games, where his team won silver yesterday. Wiggins hopes to end his career where it started: on the track. He now begins the uphill climb for 2016 Olympic gold.